1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a rotor shaft/hub unit for a wind energy or power plant with a rotor shaft provided with a rotor bearing seat connected to a rotor hub provided with a blade or blade bearing connection.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Energy generation by a wind energy plant is based on the energy conversion of translatory air movement into rotary energy and which takes place by means of the rotor blades. The rotor blades, together with the rotor hub, form the rotor, which converts the rotary engine in the rotor hub into mechanical energy in torque form. Said torque is transmitted by the rotor hub into the rotor shaft and is supplied from there by means of the gear to the generator, in which the mechanical energy is converted into electrical energy. The hub and shaft are both statically and dynamically loaded with bending and torsional moments, as well as axial and transverse forces.
Conventionally the rotor hub and rotor shaft are manufactured as individual components from heat-treatable steel or nodular cast iron and are then screwed together for assembly. This construction method has various disadvantages. One disadvantage is that, as a result of the characteristics of the materials used, the individual components are very heavy, which makes component assembly more difficult. A further disadvantage is the need of screwing together the individual components. For this purpose, it is necessary to provide on the individual components complicated joining, cutting points with very narrow manufacturing tolerances. The design of screw couplings for two individual components in general, and specifically under alternating loads, makes it necessary to locally over-dimension the components at the junction point, which once again has a negative effect on component costs.
DE 35 02 963 C2 discloses another rotor, in which a pair of rotor blades are held together with a tie bar. U.S. Pat. No. 6,227,803 B1 discloses a wind energy plant with a plastic nacelle box, which is fixed to a partly elastic tower. The rotor propeller blades comprise a rod-shaped section and a plate-shaped section.
The problem of the invention is to provide a rotor, which is lightweight and easy to assemble.